Coda Lunga Stretta

The first in our series of guards is the Coda Lunga Stretta, or narrow long tail.

Characteristics of the guard

The key defining feature of all the Coda Lunga guards is that the sword hand is held to the outside of the right knee, when the sword is held in the right hand.

Coda Lunga Stretta has the sword hand close to the knee – either right next to it or slightly pushed forwards, but nowhere near full extension. This guard should be seen as a withdrawn position rather than an extended one.

Marozzo uses Coda Lunga Stretta with the right foot in front, and would generally call the position Coda Lunga Alta if the left foot was in front. There are differences in how the masters name the guards, but for now we should consider the position only with a right lead.

I find it useful to keep the wrist in slight extension as this makes it easier to hold the sword and ensures that the wrist is firm and acts first when initiating attacks and defenses from the position. This however is not detailed in the source text.

The body should lean somewhat forwards, as Marozzo depicts in all of the three instances where this guard is shown using various sidearms.

Marozzo describes Coda Lunga Stretta equally good for striking and parrying, thus it being suitable for being either the agent (attacker) or the patient (defender).

Entering the guard

You should familiarize yourself with the guard and practise entering into it by both stepping forwards and backwards. To make the most of this exercise, try to minimize all unnecessary movement and telegraphing your actions. Make sure you feel comfortable in the position and that you are able to take the exact same position every time should you so choose.

If possible, take photographs or video of yourself entering the position, and check that all the key details are in place. You can then compare yourself to the above video or even better, to Marozzo's illustrations. But remember that not everyone has to take the positions exactly the same way – more important is that you are aware of what you are doing and why.

Actions in Coda Lunga Stretta

Marozzo wants us to learn the attacks, the parries and their ripostes from this position, but he does not enumerate which attacks can be launched from this position. Practically it is possible to make virtually any strike from here, and you should practise each one.

It is difficult to say whether Marozzo would have wanted us to practise the attacks and parries with stepping freely, or in place, or always with ripostes or progressing from only the attacks through the parries to their ripostes, but I believe we can safely assume that a setup of beginning in Coda Lunga Stretta in order to learn basic actions is a good one.

In the above video we decided to show most of the basic attacks without footwork, leaving that for later when you have studied more of these guards. You can of course include footwork in your exercises at any stage you feel comfortable doing so – it would not be wrong to do so even immediately at the beginning.

We decided to show only parries, leaving the ripostes totally for later – in a later part of this course we have gathered multiple plays or pair drills from Marozzo that begin in Coda Lunga Stretta. Instead, we show here a simple exercise of just closing lines of attack from Coda Lunga Stretta.

This drill in itself is still useful, especially if you pay attention to how you can invite attacks to be either mandritti(aimed towards your left side) or riversi(aimed towards your right side) while staying in Coda Lunga Stretta and not changing guard, but instead changing how your body and the point of your sword is aligned in relation to the attacker.

You can also see other examples of parries in the Parries.

The next guard

In the next part of this course we will examine Cinghiara Porta di Ferro. You can practise transitioning into the guard by throwing a mandritto sgualembrato while passing diagonally forward with your left foot.